It had been something over two years since I saw my last Bobs concert. In that time I had collected all nine of their CDs and was impatiently waiting for them to produce one with their newest Lady Bob, Amy Engelhardt. Well, they finally did, and went on a tour to promote it. I found out about this concert three days prior and had a bit of anxiety over whether I could actually go or not. But it was my day off, and Mom, Dad, and my brother Gordon were able to go as well.
We ran into a bit of bad traffic on I95, but got to the Birchmere without any major mishaps. The Bobs came out and opened with Helmet, an odd little ditty about the security of wearing a helmet, any kind of helmet. Joe Bob Finetti sang lead on this song which dates back to the Bobs’ early years.
Next they did a number which featured Amy on lead, Late Model Love. She sang about the different types of cars that her dates drive and what’s wrong with them. When she got to the verse about the Jimmy pick-up, though, she seemed to have a brain hiccup because she forgot the words. After “It took a jump to start him up,” she gave a blank look then kind of hummed along until she picked up the last line “that was enough!” Hey, even the pros make mistakes.
Later in the song Joe was playing a used car dealer, offering her various different kinds of car, which she kept finding faults with. Finally he said, “A girl like you could use a nice, clean Probe.”
Amy gave him a wary look and commented, “I think I saw that on the X-Files, so I’m gonna pass on that. For now.”
Now they told us about the songamatic contest from a couple years back where people sent in potential song titles. The winner which they actually wrote a song for was There’s a Nosering in My Soup, but there were also some interesting runners up. My personal favourite was Fen Shui Massacre, but the one they were offering up now was She Made Me Name You Earl. Being the naïve southern girl that I am, I didn’t immediately understand who the “you” was in this song. But then Matthew Bob Stull (singing lead) mentioned his “manly tool” and “family jewel” and I figured it out.
Next they sang an old favourite, Little Red Riding Hood by Sam Sham and the Pharoahs. This featured Richard Bob Greene on lead. As an a cappella bass he is certainly comparable to Barry Carl of Rockapella. He’s Mom’s favourite Bob.
Now another new song, actually more of a rock symphony (though Matthew Bob called it a suite) because it had four movements. It was called the Turtle Cycle; the first three movements were about turtles in an aquarium, the fourth about a rubber turtle. During the third movement, which was slow and melancholy, Amy Bob had a beautiful vocalizing solo (though the mic gave her some unpleasant feedback). When the entire piece was over, someone from the back yelled, “You were great, Amy!”
“Hey, look!” Matthew exclaimed, looking toward the voice, “It’s your mom.”
“Thanks,” Amy called to her fan, “I’ll get the check to you later.”
Next up was Cowboy Lips, one of Gordon’s favourites. This number appears on their first record, and also on their latest, slightly revamped. Richard Bob commented that Joe Bob had rearranged it with a more 90s sounds.
“We’re not in the 90s anymore,” Amy Bob pointed out. “We’re in the oos.” Whatever the year, the song now has a more barbershoppy feel to it, and has been appropriately re-named Barber Lips.
Of course, throughout the show they were plugging their new CD. “It’s called Coaster,” Amy told us. “So if you don’t like it, you can use it for one. And we encourage you to buy a set for when you have guests.”
Then it was noted the the group was coming up on its twentieth anniversary. “Yes,” Matthew said, “The Bobs first started twenty years ago. Of course, I was eight at the time.”
“I wasn’t even born,” Joe Bob grinned.
“No, but you suit was!” Matthew retorted.
Joe was, of course, wearing his trademark leisure suit with a polyester triangle shirt.
The next song was My Husband was a Weatherman, about a woman married to a man who could correctly predict the weather and everything else, too. (How infuriating.) Richard blew the pitch and Amy began to sing, then stopped. “That’s awfully low,” she complained. “Are you sure that’s the right note?”
“It hurts me when we sing it higher,” Matthew said.
“It’s not about you,” Joe told him.
Richard blew another, higher pitch and sang it, “Laaa, that’s a rather high note to start on, isn’t it?”
“For you,” Amy countered.
Finally they were able to start the song on a satisfactory note.
The next song was Art for Art’s Sake which is on the first Bobs CD. I’m afraid I don’t really understand this song, so I’ll just leave it at that.
Now they decided to take a request and got many shouts from the audience. Matthew wanted to do Dinner Bell, a song by They Might Be Giants which I had never heard. Amy grimaced and said, “If you think I screwed up the lyrics before, are you in for a treat now!”
More requests were shouted, and they eventually settled on Sign My Snarling Doggie with a little of Dinner Bell thrown in. It actually went pretty well, though Matthew had to cover his ears to keep from being thrown off when Amy started singing lines from Dinner Bell. Then we got to the barkalong and as we barked, Joe and Amy started singing, “Who let the dogs out?!”
Before moving on to the next song, they began singing a little ditty which was basically a shameless plug. “We have our new CD, Coaster,” Joe told us, “and also all the usual old crap: CDs, songbooks, T-shirts, mousepads, pens, keychains, toothbrushes, you name it!”
I remember thinking Toothbrushes? He can’t be serious. But he was, I found out later.
They closed the first half with Spontaneous Human Combustion, one of my favourites. Joe sang lead on this song about such unexplained phenomena.
They came back after the break and announced two birthdays, Tom and Eric, and sang a gloomy version of Happy Birthday. Then Matthew asked, “How many of you have never seen the Bobs before?” Several folks raised their hands.
“And you sat in the front?” Amy cried incredulously.
“Thank you for staying for the second half,” Matthew smiled.
They took a minute to rearrange their mics, then Joe and Richard began singing a wordless, minor close harmony. “And now,” Matthew continued, “we’ll have twenty minutes of free association jazz.” This went on for a bit as Matthew moved to the back of the stage and juggled water bottles. After less than two minutes he came back to the front and said, “Okay, that’s enough!”
Joe and Richard kept going though, and Amy explained that on the new CD a similar (albeit shorter) intro would go straight into an a cappella arrangement of Duke Ellington’s Caravan.
“It’s wordless,” Matthew told us, “though you might want to listen for subliminal messages in the bass line.”
At which Richard sang, quite clearly, “Buy more Bobs CDs!”
How subtle. But they finally went into Caravan, which sounded very nice a cappella.
Now came Joe’s trademark song, Leisure Suit, which contains the line “On the day my mom found out about the prom she said, ‘No more jeans and tennies…’ “ Joe had changed during the break. He now sported a baby blue tux jacket and pants with a ruffled tux shirt and a gold chain. He certainly looked like he had come from the prom, or at least a prom party.
Next up, another new song from Coaster, the ecologically correct Let’s Adopt a Highway. This odd little song suggests it as an alternative to starting a family and adding to the population boom. To each their own I suppose.
The next song had Richard on lead, so Matthew was singing the bass line. He seemed excited at the prospect and began practicing. “I sing ‘dom’ a lot in this song,” he commented.
“Uh huh,” Richard said disinterestedly.
“He doesn’t care; he does it all the time,” Joe pointed out.
After several false starts they got the song going. It was Lonely at the Top by Randy Newman, and it has some beautiful harmonies.
Vapor Carioca was next, sung by Amy, about a girl with a malodorous intestinal disorder who could nevertheless “blow a tune with uncanny aptitude.” The problem with such a talent is that it’s hard to hold onto a guy. But finally she meets a fisherman with no sense of smell and they make the perfect match. As Richard said, “The critics reviewed it as being perhaps the most beautiful song ever written…about this subject.”
And what better way to follow up a song about intestinal infortitude than with the winner of the songamatic contest, There’s a Nosering in My Soup. This one features a singalong and a pair of ladies at the next table were trying to harmonize. Made for some interesting audience participation.
Now they decided to take another request. “White Room!” someone yelled.
“Okay!” Joe agreed, that being next on their setlist.
“Something else,” Richard insisted.
The requests were many and someone called for Synaesthesia. Joe nixed that one since he has the solo both in that and White Room, and “that would me and then me again.”
“But we love you,” Amy protested.
“Two of you is not enough,” Matthew added.
The song they settled on was Trash. Amy sang about her baby who had no concept of putting things where they belong or throwing them away. Mom can relate. ;~)
Then they sang White Room (by Cream) which seems to have replaced Purple Haze as their hard rock song of the evening. On the second Bobs cover CD where this song appears, Janie Bob sang lead while Joe Bob did back-up, including his ever popular vocal electric guitar. At this concert, however, Joe was singing lead while Amy did the guitar vocals. She did a good job, too. I think she makes an excellent addition to the Bobs.
They left the stage at this point and we burst into applause, cheering for more. When they came back Matthew said, “Thanks, but we just walked over there for a minute.”
For encores they sang two more new songs from Coaster. First was The Druid Song, a new-age type folk song about whether trees would make a sound if man would just shut up and listen. And they closed most appropriately with A Cappella Choir in the Sky, a rousing Gospel song. A perfect song to end with, though I take exception to these lines from the last verse:
And when you let the devil on the stage, a good show can turn bad
Like Cats or RENT or Stomp
Or, Heaven knows, Forever Plaid!
Now, surely we don’t really mean that, do we? ;~)
With the show over I went out to lay hands on the new CD. I also bought a floating heads pen, but bypassed the toothbrushes as being just too weird. Talked to each of the Bobs, had them sign my Mainely A Cappella T-shirt, and got pictures.
Of the four, Joe proved to be the most talkative. Among other things we talked about Vince, my army brother in Germany. He plays the trombone and so does Joe. We even talked about my job. I’m not sure how we got on that subject, and the whole time my brain was screaming at me, Why are you telling him this? But he was very easy to talk to, very friendly and engaging. It was great seeing them all again; I hope I won’t have to wait so long for the next time.